Por coincidência (ou não, com Leonard Cohen nunca se deve estar demasiado seguro), são também de Old Ideas duas canções que ajudam muito a vê-lo mais de perto. Numa, "Going Home", falando de si para si, em solilóquio ironicamente auto-depreciativo, primeiro apresenta-se: “I love to speak with Leonard, he’s a sportsman and a shepherd, he’s a lazy bastard living in a suit, but he does say what I tell him, even though it isn’t welcome, he just doesn't have the freedom to refuse, he will speak these words of wisdom, like a sage, a man of vision, though he knows he’s really nothing but the brief elaboration of a tube”. E, logo a seguir, desmonta a caricatura: “He wants to write a love song, an anthem of forgiving, a manual for living with defeat, a cry above the suffering, a sacrifice recovering, but that isn’t what I need him to complete, I want him to be certain that he doesn’t have a burden, that he doesn’t need a vision, that he only has permission to do my instant bidding, which is to say what I have told him to repeat”. Na outra canção, "Darkness", antecipava, afinal, aquilo (“I caught the darkness drinking from your cup, I said is this contagious? you said just drink it up, I got no future, I know my days are few, the present's not that pleasant just a lot of things to do. I thought the past would last me but the darkness got that too”) que, quando notou que, para o entendermos, era necessário carregar no traço, reescreveu em forma de provocação: You Want It Darker.

O judeu canadiano e transitório monge zen que, há 14 anos, suplicava “Give me back the Berlin wall, give me Stalin and St Paul, I've seen the future, brother: it is murder”, não adoçou o olhar – tinha razão para o fazer? – nem encontrou respostas onde as buscava: “To turn the other cheek, sounded like the truth, seemed the better way, sounded like the truth but it's not the truth today”. No ponto de chegada de um prolongado processo de decantação (You Want It Darker inclui canções com 10, 15 e mais de 20 anos em acabamento), Cohen parece mais próximo de crer que a morte é, sem dúvida, o fim mas quase tudo na vida que a precede é um pesadelo ou um engano. E di-lo sob a forma de uma invectiva disfarçada de prece: “Steer your way past the ruins of the altar and the mall, steer your way through the fables of creation and the fall, steer your heart past the truth that you believed in yesterday, such as fundamental goodness and the wisdom of the way, (...) and please don't make me go there, though there be a god or not”. Improvavelmente ateu (“I'm so sorry for that ghost I made you be, only one of us was real and that was me”), imprevisivelmente agnóstico (“I've seen you change the water into wine, I've seen you change it back to water, too, I sit at your table every night, I try but I just don't get high with you”), mas deixando-se ainda acompanhar pelo coro da congregação Shaar Hashomayim – a sinagoga onde teve lugar o seu "bar mitzvah" – que, com os subliminares arranjos instrumentais do filho, Adam, actua como uma discreta moldura a realçar a arrepiantemente grave recitação, avisa que, por mais fundo que tenhamos batido, haverá sempre mais um degrau para descer: “They're lining up the prisoners and the guards are taking aim, I struggled with some demons, they were middle-class and tame, I didn't know I had permission to murder and to maim”. (texto escrito em 6/11, véspera da morte de Leonard Cohen)

"The elevation of Bannon to a powerful position in the White House is an epochal event in American politics, one that has been condemned by the N.A.A.C.P., the A.D.L., and many Democratic leaders, including Harry Reid, whose spokesman said in a statement, 'President-elect Trump’s choice of Steve Bannon as his top aide signals that White Supremacists will be represented at the highest levels in Trump’s White House'. The Republican consultant John Weaver, who advises Ohio Governor John Kasich, tweeted, 'Just to be clear news media, the next president named a racist, anti-semite as the co-equal of the chief of staff'. Weaver also wrote, 'The racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant America'. William Kristol, the editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, asked on Twitter, 'Is there precedent for such a disreputable & unstable extremist in [White House] senior ranks before Bannon?'" (aqui; ver também aqui)

"It`s going to happen very soon.
The great event which will end the horror.
Which will end the sorrow.
Next Tuesday, when the sun goes down,
I will play the Moonlight Sonata backwards.
This will reverse the effects of the world`s mad plunge into suffering, for the last 200 million years"

“I love to speak with Leonard, he’s a sportsman and a shepherd, he’s a lazy bastard living in a suit, but he does say what I tell him, even though it isn’t welcome, he just doesn't have the freedom to refuse, he will speak these words of wisdom, like a sage, a man of vision, though he knows he’s really nothing but the brief elaboration of a tube (…) He wants to write a love song, an anthem of forgiving, a manual for living with defeat, a cry above the suffering, a sacrifice recovering, but that isn’t what I need him to complete, I want him to be certain that he doesn’t have a burden, that he doesn’t need a vision, that he only has permission to do my instant bidding, which is to say what I have told him to repeat”

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you've done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old black joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of calvary
To the beach of malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this sacred heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows